A Gilded Lily
by HopelessRomantic54
Summary: It's christmas at Hogwarts and there is romance in the air! My 1st fanfic so please review


Going Together

It was a Friday afternoon the last class of the day. Lily, Alice, their friend Susan, James and the marauders were all in Charms. Their professor had allowed them to choose their own partners and Lily and Alice had paired up.

" So, what's up, I heard that guy Frank asked you to the Christmas Muggle -Wizard alliance ball they're holding." Asked Lily

Alice replied, " He is so nice and SO cute, have you seen him play Quiditch? Besides I think I really like him, we've hung out a couple of times and he is a really great guy."

"That is so awesome, I am so happy for you! All I can say is, thank goodness we have a Hogsmeade trip before the ball, and we have to go get dresses."

" Yeah, but where from, this is formal you can wear either muggle or wizard clothing and I think that to really be in the sprit of things we should wear muggle dresses. But where the heck are we going to get them? "

"I think the heads sorted that out, Madam Magnolia has a special order of muggle dresses especially for this dance."

"Ok, Its set. You, Susan and me will go into hogsmead tomorrow and get dresses.

While the girls had been discussing dresses, James and Sirius had been discussing dates. " So that hot Ravenclaw chick, Shelly, said she'd go to the dance with me." "That's great padfoot, but who the heck am I going to go with? I wish I could ask Lily, but you know, she tolerates me now and I don't want to ruin it."

" You could go stag, prongs ha ha ha, do you get it, and you, a stag, and you could go stag"

" Yes, oh very funny padfoot, you are extremely witty, now back to the problem at hand: who the _hell_ am I going to go to the dance with?"

"Well you know, Prongs, you could really go alone, then you could ask Lily to dance and you wouldn't have to explain anything to any one."

"Except Lily of course."

"…Well, yeah. But you could make up some excuse or other."

"At least I won't have to go to the trouble of asking a girl that I don't really like…"

" Thank God that's settled, now all we have to figure out is who Moony going to ask" said Sirius glancing over at Lupin who was helping Peter with his charms work. Then the bell rang.

Everyone thankfully gathered up his or her books, even Lily, and Charms was her favorite subject. Lily, Alice, Susan, and James all walked back to their dormitories to drop off their bags, while Sirius, Peter and Remus all went straight to the great hall for dinner. "So…what did you think of that Transfiguration test 2 periods ago?" James asked Lily as they walked along the corridor.

"I thought it was alright, but I wasn't sure about the answer to number seven."

" I got that, I think it was…" and they continued talking in the same vein until they reached the common room.

Alice and Susan were talking about the up coming dance. " I'm really looking forward to choosing a dress, I've only ever worn dress robes. What is this about you and a certain Frank Longbottom, I heard Lily and you talking about it in charms, he is so handsome."

"Yeah well…Susie I think really like him, but enough about Frank, who are you going to go with?"

"I'm going with Jason, that tall blond Ravenclaw guy who always sits at the desk near the window in the library." "Oh yea, he's cute, how did that happen, he's so quiet usually." " Well, he helped me with my ancient rune homework a couple times and then the last time he asked if I wanted to go to the dance with him, he's really nice and we have a lot in common, so I said yes" " That's awesome, I told you he liked you" Then they too reached the common room and went inside. After dropping off their bags they all headed down to the great hall for dinner.

After dinner they all went up to the common room to relax. During the past several months James, Lily, Alice, Remus, Susan, Sirius and Peter had become almost friendly. James and surprisingly also Sirius had both become more mature after Lord Voldemort had come out into the open and had started attacking muggles. They had been shocked into the reality of the danger when Death Eaters horribly murdered a boy from the village near James' house. The next morning the family received a note saying that if they didn't help Lord Voldemort, James would be the next dead boy found. His parents added extra wards around the house, but other than that they thought that it would be silly to stop their normal routine because that would be like bending to Voldemort.

" What are you all doing this weekend then?" Sirius asked the group at large.

"Well we are going to Hogsmeade to pick out dresses for the dance next week. By the way do any of you know if it is semi formal or formal?" asked Alice.

"Formal" answered Peter. Everyone looked around, surprised, and in answer to their silent questions he responded, "What? I looked at the announcement too."

" We just didn't know you took the time to remember what it said," said Sirius. Peter was about to reply when Alice interrupted and thanked Peter for letting her know. She then looked at Sirius and asked, " So who are you taking to the dance Sirius?"

" I'm taking that girl from Ravenclaw, Shelly, she's really nice."

" Yea, and I'm sure _that's _why you asked her."

" What an earth do you mean by that, Alice?"

"I happen to know that Shelly was blessed in certain anatomical respects."

" Yea well so what if she was, doesn't mean I can't ask her out."

Alice rolled her eyes. "And how about you James, got someone special?"

"No, I'm going stag." At this all the rest of the boys doubled over laughing. The girls all looked completely miffed and decided between themselves that this was an inside joke, and they didn't need to know the back-story. After the laughing fit had passed Alice asked everyone else about their dance plans and everyone, even Peter, had a date except for James and Lily. After Alice's questioning, Sirius said " Well, looks like we all have dates, except for Lily and James…Hey, why don't you two go together, as friends of course."

" Somehow I'm not so sure, " said Lily

"Why not? It would just be as friends." Replied James.

" Well, I suppose…"

"Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Lily smiled " We had better go to bed, if we want to be able to get up early to get the best dresses, they only have so many." " Yea, I guess you're right." Said Alice as she reluctantly stood up from he comfy seat by the fire.

The next morning the three girls got up at nine. They went down to the great hall ate breakfast quickly; they wanted to get to the shop early so that they could get the best pick. They walked into hogsmeade cheerfully, it was chilly, but when they went into the dress shop it was quite warm. Alice was the decided fashionista, so she helped them pick out their dresses. Alice chose a dark blue dress for Susan and a green dress for Lily to match their eyes, for herself she picked out a stunning red dress that looked really good with her favorite necklace. It took a long time to pick them out, but every one agreed that they were stunning when they were decided.

When they left the store they decided to go to the three broomsticks for a butter beer before heading back to school. They walked in and Lily went up to the bar a bought three butter beers and brought them back to the table. Alice and Susan were waiting for her and talking about their defense against the dark arts homework.

" What do you think Lily, what is the best way to fend off a dementor?" asked Susan " I think that patronuses are the best way to go." Replied Lily, " any way," she said, " We had better finish these quickly if we want to get back to the castle in time for dinner."

They had not realized the lateness of they hour. When they looked outside it was getting dark. They hurried to finish their drinks and left. They walked steadily up the drive in the gathering darkness. After they had entered the great hall and sat down, the marauders sat down next to them.

" Why are you sitting here?" asked Alice " Do you have a problem with us sitting here?" asked Sirius " Well, what if I do" said Alice putting her hands on her hips. She and Sirius both stared at each other until they started laughing. " Of course you guys can sit here" she said though her laughter " I was only joking." The marauders sat down around them, and they discussed their days'. The marauders had apparently spent most of the day doing homework. This was most surprising to the girls, as they had thought that the marauders would have spent the day planning pranks. They chatted happily all though dinner. Lily was surprised to find she enjoyed the marauders' company especially, although she hated to admit it, that of a certain James Potter. She found herself laughing at his jokes and joining in his conversation. When they had finished eating they all went up to the common room together. The girls then took their dresses up to their dorm and tried them on again, they picked out jewelry to wear with them and what shoes they would wear.

The next week passed to slowly for some and to quickly for others, but before long it was Friday, the day before the dance. Every one was excited, the girls and the marauders sat by the fire, chatting amiably at nine o'clock the girls went to bed to get a good night's sleep so that they would look their best for the dance the next night.

The dance started at seven and the girls started getting ready at five, they all took showers, moisturized, put on their dresses, and did their hair and makeup in a surprisingly short amount of time. Lily wore a green dress make of silk that had only one strap and went diagonally across her chest and had quite a low back. Underneath it her toes peeped out in green slippers. She curled her hair and it hung in a long wavy sheet down her back. Around her neck there was a chain that held a pendant shaped like a white lily and in her ears there were little lilies to match. Susan was wearing a blue halter dress made out of velvet; it had a blue bow under the chest and looked wonderful on her. She had put her hair up in a twist with the help of a sparkling blue clip. She also wore long dangling earrings that matched her clip and her dress. Alice was wearing a red strapless dress that clung to her torso and then flared down until it almost touched the ground. She was wearing her favorite necklace, a red beaded choker with a red rose hanging from it.

The girls walked down to the common room and waiting for them there were the marauders. When James saw Lily his mouth fell open, she looked stunning; her dress hugged her in all the right places and her hair contrasted beautifully with the color of her dress. Lily decided that James cleaned up quite nicely himself; she looked at him and blushed when she saw that he was staring at her. He walked towards her and spoke

" You look nice, I like your dress."

" You don't look to bad yourself"" she replied

"Well, shall we?" he asked gesturing out of the portrait hole

" We shall." She said laughing a little.

They walked out of the portrait hole. Their friends were all very pleased they had been waiting for them to get together for a while, basically ever since the beginning of the school year. James had always liked Lily and although Lily had always refused to admit it she liked James too, even though she thought he was a prat she noticed that he could be funny and nice at times. She was less reluctant after a few months back at school when she had spent some time around the new, non-hexing James.

James and lily walked down into the great hall, several people looked up and there were several mutterings about the fact that James Potter was going out with Lily Evans. One of James' "fan club" as lily called them came up to James and said, quite nonchalantly

" Why are you going with HER? You know there are several other girls who are A LOT nicer and far prettier, no one would blame you for ditching her you know."

As she said this she a bit to close to James for Lily's liking she stepped right between James and the on coming girl and said,

" You have been offering yourself to James for about five years now, clearly if he asked me he wants to go with me, now, shove off!"

James looked astonished, he had no idea that Lily had seen Dorothy; for this was the girl's name, throw herself at him practically every time he passed her weather it be in the hallway or in the library. He was extremely pleased by Lily's reaction, he had specified that they were going to the dance as 'just friends' "But," he thought to himself "that was clearly not a 'just friends' reaction, she might actually like me! But I really shouldn't get ahead of my self, maybe she just didn't want her date ruined, but if that were true she would believe that I could possibly go off with some girl when I have been chasing her for several years now…" Lily in the mean time blushed as she too realized that this reaction was a little more than purely friendly. " Sorry about that" he said rather abashedly " Its okay, it was just a bit annoying." Replied Lily " shall we go in?" she suggested and they entered.

The great hall was decorated beautifully. All the Christmas trees were decorated in gold and the air shimmered as though golden glitter had been thrown into it and it had stuck there. There were also faeries flitting though the air providing glowing lights. Lily and James went and sat down at a medium size table that provided room enough for their friends and their dates. As people filtered in Lily and James talked animatedly about a variety of different topics and hardly noticed the band or their friends coming into the great hall. As the band, called The Witchy Chicks, began playing their third song Sirius came over and interrupted them, " Are you two going to sit and talk all night? Or are you going to actually dance?" " Oh, right, dance," said James "so Lily, how about it? You want to dance?" " Sure James lets dance." Said Lily smiling and giving Sirius a grin. Lily and James walked on to the dance floor.

They danced for quite some time, with each song moving closer and closer together until they were only centimeters apart. When they came to the end of the song they broke apart. Lily was blushing and muttered something about needing some thing to drink and as she walked over to the deserted table James went and got her some punch. When he came back they chatted amicably for about a quarter of an hour and then Lily said she was tired, the looked at the clock and found that it was one o'clock in the morning. They walked back up to the common room and when they arrived, James held the portrait open for Lily and they reluctantly walked over to the entrance to the girl's dormitories.

"Thanks so much for coming with me." Said James " I had a really nice time." Said Lily, they were standing quite close together now and as James looked into Lily's eye's he said " well I guess I better be going then…." His voice trailed off as they moved closer together. There was a full minute where they slowly inched closer until he finally kissed her. The kiss seamed to last for ages and yet when they finally pulled apart it seemed it had only been a second. "Lily, will you go out with me?" he asked and in answer she pulled him into another kiss.


End file.
